A Blessing from the Lord- Cascade... a good 'ole horse

When I was very young, running around the desert with my fringed vest, boots, cowgirl hat and Annie Oakley pop-gun, I longed for a horse like a lot of children do {it just seems natural}. My horse would be a beautiful white noble stead with a long flowing golden mane and tail! Well, there were a lot of other things that needed to come first before I would be able to own a horse. Years went by and I would ride and admire other horses owned by friends or neighbors and visit any horse barns I could, enjoying the smells of hay, brushing and saddling the horses and performing other skills that go with horsemanship. More years went by and life was very full with family, my own dear children, homeschooling and learning the skills of homesteading. My daughters were growing and we had moved to an old Amish homestead that had one of the most amazing 150 year old log barns we had ever seen. It was one that Eric Sloan would have drawn and written about and admired! Perfect for a horse {or 2, or 3 or more}! With more pasture land, this big barn and a new country lifestyle, a horse {of course!} was the next logical addition! So we put the word out, we were looking for a good, well trained family work horse.
   Mable was a very kind soul who still lived at home with her family {a few miles away from us} and she served her family and served different folks in the community who might need her help. We were happy to meet her. One day she asked the girls {Cecilia and Hannah- they were about 5 and 6 at that time} if they would like to see her horse, Cascade. And of course the girls were elated to get to see this horse! To them, Cascade was a giant! She was about 15 ½ hands high, a Standard Bred beauty, chestnut in color, in great health and form, and was only about 12-14 years in age. The girls were in awe as they enjoyed rubbing their little hands over this magnificent creature. Mable took good care of her and liked to hitch her up for a buggy ride or to use her for making rounds and doing errands in the community. And Cascade always seemed eager to go and trot down the dirt roads where there were other horses to see. We all noticed what a good horse Cascade was and how well she worked with children. One day Mable asked if we would like to keep Cascade and use her for awhile. Wow, we’re we excited- of course we would love to take care of her and use her!  It was on a beautiful warm sunny day when Mable drove up into our lane with Cascade pulling the little one-seated horse cart. Here at our farm, Cascade would have plenty of pasture, the Old Barn would once again have great purpose in housing Cascade and keeping sweet smelling hay in the great loft and, of course, 3 young children who would just love her and who would take good care of her. I was so grateful, it was a dream come true! Okay, she wasn’t the white noble stead with a long golden flowing mane and tail, but she was still a fine horse {even though I had quite a time getting up on this tall mare} and I did enjoy riding so much! We learned how to harness and hitch her up to the cart and enjoyed using her to get milk and to go visiting in the valley with friends. We also took turns riding her. She was an excellent riding horse, Cecilia and Hannah could both ride her at the same time. They had so much fun cantering around the farm and they even learned how to jump Cascade over old fallen logs which she preformed with graceful skill and agility. Then one day, Mable asked me if I wanted to buy Cascade. She was moving to a different home that wouldn’t have enough pasture for the horse. We didn’t have to consider it long before we knew this must be the horse that God had provided for us. At this time we had been keeping Cascade for about 1 year already and in the year we had gotten to know her quite well. She was gentle and very reliable with children and she was traffic safe, although we kept her to our small country dirt road that consisted mostly of other horse drawn vehicles and some cars. Along with Cascade when we bought her, we got a saddle and bridle, a small one seat, two-wheeled cart and a buggy harness. Cascade was so useful and versatile! When riding her, we found that she had a wonderful saddle gait that was smooth as glass and I loved it! The girls have so many fond memories and stories of riding and playing with Cascade. When friends would come over, they would take turns riding Cascade pretending they were scouts riding for the Confederate army! At one time in her life {before Mable or we owned her}, Cascade had been trained and prepped for a race horse. She could run very fast. When the girls were a lot older they would race her with other horses and even trucks! Cascade was always ready to race and she loved it. She could be so gentle and seemed even thoughtful at times, like if the girls ever fell off of her, she would always stop right away so that she would not step on them. One time Hannah flew right over Cascade’s head, slid down her neck and landed on the ground with a thud. Cascade immediately stopped, and waited until Hannah got up and jumped on her back again and off they rode. This horse was such a blessing to our family. Growing much of our food meant we would need to keep our large garden cultivated from the weeds.     Cascade pulled the walk behind cultivator just fine! Saving us lots of money we would have other wise spent on gas and the cost of a tractor or tiller. Our dear horse also hauled great loads of straw and dirt for our garden in the little cart. We would take out the seat, load ‘er up and Cascade would pull it over to the garden for us. I called her my “garden buddy”. Cascade had very important responsibilities for our family- she carried us for miles for many years! She was healthy as a horse and only got sick 2 or 3 times in all the years that she was with us.
      Over the years as Cascade got older she worked less for us and spent a lot more time in the pasture {with our other riding horses that we had gotten over time}.  We did use her to cultivate in the garden right up to 2 years ago and we were so grateful she took care of our garden for almost 15 years! Even in her older age we could  ride her here and there and she was still rearing to go!
  She lived a very productive and full happy life till she was up in her thirties, which is a good ’ole age for a horse. The day she died, we all had a hard time. I never thought I would cry about a horse dying, but my tears flowed like Niagra! Then it struck me when thinking of wonderful memories of her and our family, how thankful to God I was for the time she was here with us {17 years} and for giving so much joy to our family in her service that God blessed us with. We will miss Cascade so much and I’m sure there can’t be another horse like her, but our garden will need to be cultivated this summer, there’s an empty buggy needing to be pulled {especially with gas prices soaring} and we could always find time to go riding-
        so we put the word out, we’re looking for another family work horse…